newsletter updates

NEWSLETTER UPDATE

this morning i recieived via email the newsletter from the
alzheimers disease information network
when i read the first article
i said ruh roh

a new study showed that 'sleep is disturbed in people who have
early alzheimers disease but who yet dont have the memory loss
or other cognitive problems characteristic of full blown
alzheimers disease'

all of the study subjects were normal that is that they had no memory
issues at all but
about a fourth of them had positive biomarkers in the spinal fluid
(which i will blog about each friday over the next 4 weeks)
which means they had preclinical alzheimers disesase
that is they had beta amyloid and tau protein levels that were abnormal
and probably had beta amyloid accumulation in the brain already

these people with the abnormal biomarkers were found to have poorer
sleep efficiency than those who did not have them

ruh roh
i know that im in that group as i have abnormal levels of these biomarkers
in my spinal fluid and will soon find out via an amyvid pet scan of the
brain if i have beta amyloid accumulation also

and do i have sleep disturbance
no trouble going to sleep but i have restless sleep at night
just ask my wife
i nap during the day

is it the chicken or the egg
does sleep disturbance have an effect on developing alzheimers or does
alzheimers cause the sleep disturbance

my theory
these sleep changes occurs years and years before people notice alzheimers
and
the beta amyloid and tau protein abnormalities occur also years and years
before alzheimers in a person is recognized by the person and their family
those protein changes and the destruction that results
are the causes of the sleep disturbance


in alzheimers disease as mentioned above the beta amyloid protein starts
accumulating years and years before symptoms occur

researchers at the university of michigan have isolated a molecule from
green tea that seems to interfere with the misfolding of these proteins in the
brain thats been associated with alzheimers

so does that mean that we should all be drinking green tea to help
prevent alzheimers disease

maybe


nature.com

then a study from ut dallas looked at whether controlling high blood
pressure early in life may slow down or prevent the formation of the
changes in the brain associated with alzheimers disease

they looked at patients who carried the apoe4 gene which if you have
the double gene of it
like i do
you have a 15x increase chance of developing alzheimers and if you
have mild symptoms you have a 60-90% chance of developing
alzheimers disease

then they compared patients with the apoe4 gene who
had normal blood pressure
untreated mild high blood pressure
treated blood pressure

they found that those patients who had apeo4 genes and had untreated
high blood pressure had more amyloid accumulation in the brain
that hallmark of alzheimers disease
than
those treated apoe4 hypertension patients and those with apoe4 and
a normal blood pressure

so these results suggest that maybe controlling your blood pressure
may significantly reduce risk of developing those hallmark deposits
of amyloid in the brain

remember this study was done in people who are normal with
no memory issues

so gradually we are starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together
for the alzheimers disease puzzle

now all we need is some way to treat it or prevent it

the organicgreen doctor